This is probably the “worst” photo yet, technically speaking; my photographer was a little distracted & happened to take the picture just as the train jostled us all around a bend.
Which brings me to the choosing of the photographer: usually, I think, when scouting out a person to take a picture for us, we are looking for openness, friendliness, & a certain degree of idleness or leisure. We don’t bug the person who is obviously in a hurry or otherwise occupied.
In this case I let other factors influence me: I picked the person who was sitting where I thought the best angle would be for taking the picture. Somehow though, he was also the most approachable of the candidates. As it happens, in the picture you can actually see someone I considered asking, but didn’t—a guy who seemed a bit aloof, preoccupied more than actually occupied. I didn’t overthink all of this at the time, just looked around & took a psychic hit on the various people. Near the aloof guy was another guy who was scruffy, dirty, unkempt in a way that seemed to extend beyond the merely physical. Other candidates not chosen were a young woman studiously applying make-up, her mother(?) who looked even more aloof & closed than aloof guy, & a younger mom engrossed with her small daughter.
My photographer was a bespectacled college student with his math homework spread out on the seat next to him. He had just gotten on & I figured (wrongly, as it turns out) he was not deep into his work yet. When I said, “Excuse me,” he obviously thought I wanted him to clear the seat for me, then was subtly relieved to be asked to take a picture instead of surrendering his workspace. He was obliging enough, but as you can see from the photo his heart was not exactly in it. When he glanced at the result I could almost see him making the split-second decision that the shot was good enough to release him from this small obligation, & he would rather get back to his math than offer another shot.
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